Proclaiming Monotheism in a Polytheistic World: Jewish Biblical Interpretation and Battlestar Galactica

A lecture by Dr. Shayna Sheinfeld, Sheffield Institute for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies (SIIBS)

Ancient Jewish biblical interpretation situates the patriarch Abraham as the first monotheist. Abraham
resides with his father, a creator of idols, and interpretive stories tell of Abraham’s rejection of polytheism,
his discovery of the one God, and the trouble in which he found himself based on this situation. In the SciFi
(now Syfy) channel’s series Battlestar Galactica, this same religious tension between polytheism and
monotheism is exemplified in the human convert to monotheism, Gaius Baltar. This talk will explore the
similarities between Baltar and Abraham, and how these two figures served as archetypes by which others
might measure their own personal journey in a world that worships many gods.